Friends of AEC

The AEC seeks to make the bonds between Austrian and American thinkers even stronger through its partner organization, “Friends of the Austrian Economics Center (AEC).” Registered as a 501(c)(3) organization, the organization will allow U.S. donors to make tax-deductible contributions to help fund the AEC’s future projects.

The Friends of Austrian Economics Center, Inc. (AEC US) supports economic alternatives and attempts, in not only an open think-tank sense but also an academic one, to realize them especially as it relates to the establishment of a free, responsible and prosperous society including improving the public understanding of key economic questions, and promotion the idea of a free market economy.

The Friends of AEC appeals to a broad audience – all entrepreneurial thinkers and active workers, both domestic and abroad – and names rationality, responsibility, and logic as the key elements of a successful economy. The AEC US has a duty to the Austrian School of Economics: it desires not only that the main lessons of its economic scientists and social philosophers achieve competitiveness with other theories, but also that the lessons become a historic figurehead, just like the world-famous Austrian musicians, philosophers, and doctors. Put simply, its duty is to further the Austrian school’s position.

When Hayek and Mises moved to the United States, they brought with them a great intellectual tradition that would influence a new generation of American scholars. Today, places like Auburn University, George Mason University, New York University, and San Jose State University all offer advanced degrees in economics that concentrate on the Austrian School. Ideas are the most important element in the process of producing social change. For the last century, the idea that government should manage the economy has changed western countries from cultures of freedom and responsibility to cultures of servitude and dependence. As a result, these countries now face sky-rocketing debt, stagnating growth, and decreasing standards of living.

Unfortunately, many people are calling for expanded government powers to solve the problems that governments themselves have created. Spreading the ideas of liberty is the only way to reverse this destructive trend. Through grass-roots education, publications, and the building of networks, the AEC US plays a vital part in fulfilling this mission.